NAIROBI, Kenya - The vote count from Kenya's election
was rigged, but both parties could have been involved,
the chief U.S. envoy for Africa said Monday, declining
to blame either President Mwai Kibaki or the
opposition leader who ran against him.

The opposition leader, Raila Odinga, canceled
nationwide protests on Monday, saying he wanted to
avoid new violence and give mediation a chance to
resolve the election standoff that has killed nearly
500 people in political and ethnic bloodletting.

"Yes, there was rigging," the U.S. envoy, Jendayi
Frazer, told The Associated Press. "I mean there were
problems with the vote counting process ... both the
parties could have rigged."

She said both rival parties could have been involved
and that she did not want to blame either Kibaki or
Odinga.

Frazer, who has spent three days negotiating with
Kibaki and Odinga, said at an earlier news conference
that Kenyans "have been cheated by their political
leadership and their institutions." In particular,
Frazer said, the electoral commission was flawed and
needed reform.

The commission chairman has admitted that he is not
sure Kibaki won the vote.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for
further information. AP's earlier story is below.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP)  Kenya's opposition leader on
Monday canceled nationwide protests, saying he wanted
to avoid new violence and give mediation a chance to
resolve the election dispute that has killed nearly
500 people in political and ethnic bloodletting.

The chief U.S. envoy for Africa, who has spent three
days negotiating with President Mwai Kibaki and the
opposition, said Kenyans "have been cheated by their
political leadership and their institutions." In
particular, Jendayi Frazer said, the electoral
commission was flawed and needed reform.

The commission chairman has admitted that he is not
sure Kibaki won the vote.

Frazer said that the turmoil had not shaken U.S.
confidence in Kenya as a regional hub. She said the
United States favored whatever solution Kibaki and the
opposition leader, Raila Odinga, come up with to
resolve the deadlock and halt violence.

Odinga called off protests planned for Tuesday after
meeting with Frazer. Kibaki's government, accused by
Odinga of stealing the Dec. 27 election, had said the
proposed Tuesday demonstrations were illegal and could
provoke violence.

Reports of ethnic killings continued to stream in from
the countryside, with an official in neighboring
Uganda confirming 30 Kenyan refugees were thrown into
the border river by attackers, and were presumed
drowned.

Two Ugandan truck drivers carrying the group said they
were stopped Saturday at a roadblock mounted by
militiamen who identified the refugees as members of
Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe and threw them into the deep,
swift-flowing Kipkaren River, said Himbaza Hashaka, a
Ugandan border official.

The drivers said none survived, Hashaka said.

A statement Monday from the Ministry of Special
Programs put the death toll at 486 with some 255,000
people displaced from their homes. The toll, which did
not include the drownings, was compiled by a committee
of humanitarian services set up by the government
which toured areas most affected by riots and
protests.

Odinga told Sky News television that Kibaki's
"rigging" himself back into power caused the violence
and therefore "Mr. Mwai Kibaki must bear
responsibility ... for the deaths we are seeing in our
country today."

But a government spokesman said officials were
investigating "premeditated murder" of people warned
beforehand that they would pay if they voted for
Kibaki.

Such targeting of certain communities "can ultimately
result in serious crimes under international law such
as crimes against humanity and genocide," Mutua said.

He did not say who could be charged.

Attempts to hold opposition rallies last week were
blocked by police who fired tear gas, water cannons
and live bullets over people's heads. Human rights
groups accused police of excessive force and
unjustified killings in the crisis, but police
Commissioner Hussein Ali insisted Sunday that "we have
not shot anyone."

For Frazer, Monday was the last day of a three-day
mission in which she has won an offer from Kibaki to
form a coalition government and a concession from
Odinga that he would negotiate without insisting that
Kibaki first resign.

The United States, Britain and the European Union have
urged Kibaki and Odinga to negotiate. The East African
nation is considered an ally in the fight against
terrorism.

Meanwhile, thousands of tourists have canceled
vacations at the beginning of the high season.

"Hotels have been projecting an occupancy of 80-90
percent of capacity. But today, as we speak, that has
dropped down to less than 40 percent. That's a huge
loss for the economy," Mohammed Hersi, general manager
of Whitesands Hotel in the coastal city of Mombasa,
told AP Television News.

Schools were to reopen after the holidays on Monday,
but the government postponed that for a week. Many are
being used by refugees.

The level of violence eased over the weekend, though
ethnic attacks continued, pitting Odinga's Luo and
other tribes against Kibaki's Kikuyu people, the
largest among Kenya's 42 tribes.

Nearly 1,000 Luos were chased Sunday from their homes
in one small town, Limuru, 30 miles west of Nairobi,
the capital. Some with furniture and bundles of
clothing, others with nothing, they huddled around the
compound of the local police station.

George Otieno, 30, said about 100 men armed with
machetes, hammers and sticks attacked his home and
smashed his head with a hammer.

"They said, 'You have to go back to your place,'"
meaning the Luo's native lands in western Kenya, said
Otieno, whose head was bandaged and shirt marked with
dried blood.

About a mile away, more than 500 Kikuyu refugees were
at a Red Cross compound, forced from their homes in
the remote Western Province that is a Luo stronghold.
Thousands of Kikuyus are fleeing western Kenya under
armed police escort.

Francis Waweru said he had arrived three days ago with
his wife and four children, fleeing a mob of hundreds
who torched his shop and home in Timboroa. He showed a
leg wound where he said he was shot with a bow and
arrow.